Training Camp (3)

Day of Thura, 8:37 a.m.

Uliah burst into a charge with 2 weapons, a sword and a mace, on her hands. And in front of her was Vivian who was holding a shield and sword.

She thrust her sword forward.

Brang!

Vivian casually parried it, causing Uliah to momentarily lose her balance. And although it was only a moment, to Vivian, it was an eternity and she immediately took advantage of it.

Pah!

Blarrrgh!

Thud!

Uliah received a kick on her stomach, causing her to cough out bodily fluids and was sent flying a couple of feet away before finally landing on the ground.

I didn't use my full strength…

But I think that was a critical hit…

Hopefully, she admits defeats now so that I can move on to the next…

Uliah healed herself and got up. Her face twisted and she stomped her foot on the floor.

"Not again! I can't even land one hit!"

"Sister Squad Leader Uliah, don't try to wiggle yourself out from the rules like last time, it's our turn," Kara warned on the side.

Uliah let out a sigh and then turned to her.

"I know," she said before picking up her weapons and walking away.

Kara and Samantha stepped in and faced Vivian.

Kara carried a sword and shield, while Samantha carried a spear.

Vivian started walking towards them.

Seeing Vivian walking, the two women decided to separate from each other.

Kara ran around and went behind Vivian.

Samantha, on the other hand, raised her hand and activated a magic spell.

[Earth Arrow].

Wooo!

A 15-inch long arrow made out of mud shot through Vivian who evaded it.

Kara, who was behind Vivian, charged and activated a skill.

[Power Slash].

Woooh!

Vivian turned into a blur, causing Kara's attack to miss and she was already in front of Samantha.

Samantha's eyes became wide and she quickly tried to activate a skill in order to protect herself.

Pah!

"AAAHHH!!!"

Thud!

Vivian swatted her away with a shield, sending her flying a couple of feet 

away before crashing to the floor.

Kara charged forward once again and activated a skill once more.

[Power Shield].

Pah!

"AAAHHH!"

Vivian easily evaded it and then kicked her away, sending her crashing to the floor and sliding a couple of feet away.

Noticing that Kara and Samantha weren't getting up, she glanced at her abnormally pale arms.

So it's like this, huh…

Back in the night of the day of Fratur, after eating someone for the first time, her complexion turned perfect, like a perfectly-looking healthy human being. However, as each day passed by, her complexion started to turn back to its unhealthy-looking state little by little. And although her skin has returned to being abnormally pale, by her estimate, her skin will completely turn to its usual abnormally pale complexion by tomorrow.

This is also why she decided to use a shield in order to make sure that no one could land a hit on her in case something unexpected happened, such as seeing the color of her blood.

Looks like I need to eat someone once again…

But I'm not sure if the effect is limited to humans alone…

Hopefully, it isn't limited to humans…

Too much attention…

Kara and Samantha were healed by Sally and Diane and then they replaced them.

Sally carried a claw and dagger, while Diane had an axe.

The first time I ate that human I was lucky…

No one could trace it back to me because there were no obvious motives…

But if another human were to disappear inside this camp, it would be a different story…

There's also the existence of those 2 Priests who supposedly have 5 Magic Art Affinities, making the security in the Training Camp a bit tighter than usual…

Sally and Diane charged at Vivian.

I just hope eating animals could make my blood turn red…

***

9:00 a.m.

It was now time to train their Magic Art.

Vivian and some of her classmates entered the Magic Art training rooms, while a few decided not to because they preferred to continue training their Physical and Magic Arts at the same time.

But given that another class or platoon would be taking over, those who wanted to continue sparring made sure to train on the side and not disturb the other platoon.

Vivian entered a Magic Art training room.

It was similar to the ones back at the compound where the members of the Temple of Priests live in Luxen City.

The room had a tiny space and was made out of cement. There was no furniture and the floor was filled with holes but it was clean so there were no blood stains. The only thing inside the room was a symbol of a vertically stretched-out sun plastered on one of the walls with a small window on top of it which served as a source of light so the room was a bit dark.

Vivian sat down on the floor and activated a spell.

[Soul Strike].

A white water-like aura appeared on her hand and touched her leg.

Ooo…

The moment she felt her spell absorbing her mana, she immediately deactivated it.

She repeated the process.

[Soul Strike].

Ooo…

Thanks to the classes she had been taking and also asking a few "innocent" questions from her classmates, her knowledge about Physical and Magic Arts improved a great deal.

In regards to the 1 Magic Art to 2 Physical Arts ratio, she was confident that nothing bad would happen to her as long as her Magic Force didn't exceed her Physical Force by 2 grades.

With that, her Physical and Magic Force were now both Adamantite.

And as for whether she would use [Greater Origin Enchant] here, although there was supposedly no item or magic that could detect if someone nearby was using Chaos magic, she still didn't want to risk it.

After all, the only reason she would want to use [Greater Origin Enchant] was on her [Halo] to boost her mana recovery greatly. And considering what happened to Radford and how the [Greater Origin Enchant] would increase the physical size of her [Halo], she concluded that it was better to be safe than sorry.

***

11:26 a.m.

Vivian and the rest of her fellow female recruits returned to the female dorm.

Vivian shed all of her clothes before grabbing a towel and wrapping herself with it.

She sweated a lot this morning and wanted to wash her body.

She wasn't the only one. Even Kara and the others wanted to take a bath as well.

"Sister Squad Leader Uliah and Sister Kara, someone's looking for all of you," Sally called.

Kara and Uliah turned around and saw the mail delivery service at the door.

They both went to get their mail.

"Please sign here to confirm that you've received the items," the Priestess said as she handed over a pen and paper attached to a folder.

Each of them signed and both Kara and Uliah received letters and gifts.

"Anyone want to eat some chocolates?" asked Kara.

One of the gifts she received was a box of chocolates.

"Are you sure that's safe to eat? For all you know, it could be traced with some sort of poison," said Uliah.

"It's from my parents," replied Kara.

"Oh…"

"What's that large box?" asked Diane.

"This one? I believe my dress for the upcoming Graduation Ball that I asked my parents to send for me," said Kara.

"Open it!" all of the women, except for Vivian, said excitedly.

Right…

There's that Graduation Ball at the end of this Basic Training…

There's also the Capture the Flag Tournament before that…

***

1:15 p.m.

In a classroom. 

Gars was standing in front of Platoon 3 and explaining a topic.

"Yesterday, we discussed what would happen if your Magic Force exceeds your Physical Force by 2 grades.

"This time around, we're going to focus on Physical Arts, specifically, its categories, strategies and other things.

"For the skills of the Physical Art, they are divided into 3 categories: Low-Tier, Mid-Tier and High-Tier.

"For example [Sword Mastery].

"On [Sword Mastery], the Low-Tier Skill would be [Power Sword]. And if you use the skill, it will increase your Physical Force by 1 grade.

"On the Mid-Tier would be [Explosive Explosive]. And if you use it, it will increase your Physical Force by 1 grade.

"And on the High-Tier, it would be [Mana Sword]. You will get this skill once you completely mastered [Sword Mastery]. And although this skill doesn't increase your Physical Force by 1 grade when attacking, it doesn't require any mana to use, you can activate it anytime, its strength and durability is based on your Physical Force, and you don't have to worry about it breaking from using [Power Sword] and [Explosive Shield] or even spells like [Enchant Light] -- basically, you will have an unlimited weapon.

"Now, although you mustn't let your Magic Force exceed your Physical Force by 2 grades, that doesn't mean you should just go level up every Physical Art under the sun.

"In a real battle, if two fighters aren't that different from each other when it comes to Physical and Magic Force, having the right skills and spells could play a huge role.

"For example, let's say there are two Fighters: Fighter A and Fighter B.

"Fighter A has a Physical and Magic Force of Orichalcum. And although he only has Low-Tier skills, he has 10 Low-Tier skills from 10 different Masteries.

"On the other hand, Fighter B has a Physical and Magic Force of Mihril. And although he only has 3 Masteries, he has mastered all of them.

"Who do you think will win?

"First of all, you have to understand that many things could happen in a real fight. But let's say it was a fair fight where there are no surprises.

"If it was a quick and fair fight, the likely winner would be Fighter A. Meanwhile, if it was a long and fair fight, the likely winner would be Fighter B.

"So why Fighter B would win in a long and fair fight? 

"Firstly, mana isn't unlimited.

"Secondly, stamina is also not unlimited.

"Thirdly, to activate a skill like [Power Sword] and [Explosive Sword], you will need to use a sword in order to activate it. On top of that, there's a limit on how many times you can use a skill on a weapon until it breaks -- which wouldn't be an issue if you have [Mana Sword].

"And lastly, even if you have multiple unmastered Masteries, it's not like can you go around carrying 10 different weapons with you. At best, one can only carry one main weapon, two sub-weapons and then rely on [Fist] and [Leg Mastery].

"That is why Fighter B would be the winner in a long and fair fight.

"And if we were to make both fighters equal in Physical and Magic Force, then I'm betting all my gold on Fighter B.

"However, keep in mind that this is only based on the Physical and Magic Force and the Physical Art skills. Because if we are to also consider the Magic Art and Class Magic spells, that would be a very different topic.

"Nevertheless, if you want to increase your winning or survival rate, it's best to focus on 1 Magic Art = 2 Physical Arts.

"Does anyone have any questions?"

One of the recruits raised their hand.

"Crusader Roderick."

"What Mana Weapons do you have? Can you show it to us? Also, how long does it take to master a single Physical Art Mastery?"

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Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

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Please note that the chapters posted there are only drafts. So when those said Chapter Drafts will be published here, there will be some edits. They also involve a few secret outline notes/details that I won't publish here because they contain spoilers or dispel some of the mysteries. And at the moment, Chapter Drafts 247-252 are posted there.

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